Field
Exemplary embodiments relate to a mask frame assembly, a display manufacturing apparatus including the mask frame assembly, and a method of manufacturing a display apparatus using the mask frame assembly.
Discussion of the Background
Mobile electronic devices, such as mobile phones, notebook computers, personal digital assistants, tablets, etc., are widely used. These devices typically include a display unit to provide users with visual information, such as an image or video information, in order to support various functions. Components for driving display units have become smaller, but the display units themselves have become more important in conventional mobile electronic devices. It is also noted that a structure for bending a display unit from a first (e.g., flat) state to a second (e.g., bent at a certain angle) state has been developed.
A conventional display apparatus may be manufactured using a vacuum deposition process performed by depositing, for instance, a metal material or an organic material that may be used as an electrode or organic layer on a substrate in a vacuum environment to form a thin film on the substrate. The vacuum deposition process may be performed by locating a substrate upon which a thin film is to be formed in a vacuum chamber, adhering a mask, e.g., a fine metal mask (FMM), to the substrate (or over the substrate), and depositing a material on the substrate by evaporating or sublimating the material using a deposition source. The mask typically will have the same (or a similar) pattern as a pattern to be formed as the thin film.
Typically, to manufacture a relatively high resolution display device, it may be beneficial to minimize (or at least reduce) a shadow effect associated with utilizing a mask. As such, the vacuum deposition process is usually performed with the mask in relatively close contact with a substrate or a layer on the substrate. It is noted, however, that as a mask becomes thinner, a gap between the mask and the substrate may increase. As such, the shadow effect may increase.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the inventive concept, and, therefore, it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known to a person of ordinary skill in the art.